The ESN Introduction ran for three days and did a great job of introducing us to the city. The first day started with an afternoon of meeting people followed by our pre-drink and then our first borrel. The participants included students studying at the HES (my school) and other HvA divisions as well (like social work and others). We were split up into groups and given two coaches. My group's coaches Michele and Linda came over for the pre-drink along with some of the people from our group. We played Yee-Ha and a couple of other little drinking games. Then once everyone was a little tipsy we left for the borrel. A borrel is sort of a Dutch way of networking. It’s when people gather, drink and talk. We got Dutch flags painted on our ... read more

The last couple of days have consisted of exploring and partying. I went out exploring with Ross and Allison. We made a couple of purchases, discovered our area and the famous Vondel Park. The biggest purchase was our grill! Ross and I would like to formally welcome it to our apartment. Cooking with a stovetop wouldn't have cut it for 6 months, so we went to Blokker and bought a 3 in 1 grill for 25 euro. We felt it was worth the investment. It had a sandwich maker (WOOHOO for grill cheese), a grill (YAY for chicken and saumon), and a waffle grill (we haven’t used yet). The biggest discovery was how awesome Vondel park is. Even in the middle of winter, it's a beautiful park with multiple canals flowing through it. Families are out ... read more

I arrived in Amsterdam the day after a horrific wind storm was the cause of a few deaths and millions of dollars in damage. On the flight I knew nothing of this, however it would explain a lot about the landing. It was like a roller coaster, my stomach leaving the seat when my butt was perfectly stuck to it. In the end we landed safely and the adventure to my new place of residence began. I took the train from Schipol airport to Amsterdam's central station, with my two bags this became an adventure! After getting off at central station I lugged my two bags through the station and onto the number 2 tram. I stood with my bags nervously on the tram, not wanting to miss my stop and have to walk in the ... read more